No govt can survive in UP without BSP: Kanshi Ram
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo
Kanshi Ram declared on Monday that no government in Uttar
Pradesh could survive without his party's support.
Earlier, speaking to reporters at Hyderabad airport, Kanshi Ram
asserted that none of his party's legislators in UP would
defect to the Bharatiya Janata Party. He, however, said other parties including the
Congress should guard their MLAs as well.
He pointed out that former UP chief minister Mayawati was accompanied by all the 22 BSP ministers and 60 party MLAs
when she went to Raj Bhavan on Sunday to inform the governor of her
decision to withdraw support to the BJP-led government.
He added that all earlier attempts to engineer defections
in the BSP had ended in failure.
Kanshi Ram cited the statements
made by Chief Minister Kalyan Singh and BJP state unit president Rajnath Singh as the cause for the sudden withdrawal of support. Both BJP leaders, he said, had declared that they did not need BSP support, and that the BJP could run the government on its own. Now he was only responding to the challenge thrown by them.
The BSP leader ruled out reconsidering the decision
even if Kalyan Singh agreed to
revoke the controversial government order to check the abuse of the
Dalit Act.
Ruling out the possibility of forming a government, Kanshi Ram asserted that his party would get an absolute majority
in the state if a mid-term election were held within six months.
Both the BJP and BSP, he said, had agreed on
an equal number of ministries. The departments
were divided equally, and ministers were allowed to
appoint officers of their choice. When Mayawati was at the helm,
the agreement was implemented and the BJP ministers appointed
officers of their choice.
However, after Kalyan Singh took over, the agreement was ignored and
27 officers were transferred. He further said that Kalyan Singh
then failed to reinstate the officers after agreeing
to do so on October 12. Instead, he challenged
the BSP.
Continuing his tirade, he said the police had stopped registering cases
against dalit atrocities after the Kalyan Singh government issued an order to check
the misuse of the Dalit Act.
Meanwhile, Mayawati has urged Governor Romesh Bhandari to ensure that voting
in the assembly on Tuesday is conducted under the supervision of
an impartial observer sent by the governor.
In her letter to the governor, Mayawati, also the leader of the BSP legislature party, said she
had come to know that the assembly speaker, a BJP
member, had planned to conduct voting
by show of hands. This, in turn, could lead to manipulation.
In another development, the Uttar Pradesh unit of the Samajwadi Party
urged Bhandari to appoint three observers
for the special session of the Vidhan Sabha on October 21.
State SP chief Ram Saran Das and secretary general
Shiv Pai Singh Yadav have requested Bhandari to appoint least one
observer from their party.
They further recommended that signatures of the legislators should be
obtained only after checking their identity cards.
Union Communication Minister Beni Prasad Verma -- a Samajwadi Party member -- asserted that Kalyan Singh would be unable to prove his majority.
He described Kalyan Singh's claim of
enjoying a majority as baseless.
Asked whether the SP would stake its claim to form an
alternative government, Verma evaded a direct reply and said
such things would be considered after the fall of the
Kalyan Singh government.
The BJP, on the contrary expressed confidence that Kalyan Singh would
prove his majority in the state assembly.
Party spokesman Yashwant Sinha, however, refused to elaborate
on how the BJP would pull through in UP. He, however stated that
Kalyan Singh had been
given 'bare minimum' time by the governor. "Time is short, but we are
confident that Mr Kalyan Singh will win the confidence vote," he
added.
He further clarified that the BJP would not indulge in any kind of horse trading.
As the single largest party, it had the right to govern
the state. Sinha said it would not be difficult to muster
another 31 members to succeed.
The party is pinning its hopes on smaller groups, including the
Congress, to rearch the magic figure. BJP members feel that
President's rule would ultimately benefit the SP.
He said there were only two options before the governor. Either
ask the BJP to continue, being the single largest party or
dissolve the assembly and call for fresh elections.
The latest party position in the UP assembly:
BJP: 175
Samajwadi Party: 110
BSP: 67
Congress: 18
UP Loktantrik Congress: 19
Bharatiya Kisan Krishi Party: 08
Janata Dal: 07
Independents: 13
CPI-M: 04
CPI: 01
Samata Party: 02
SJP: 01
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